Comments on: LinkShares Sales Reporting Web Service and Affiliate Tracking Methods 101 http://www.revenews.com/affiliate-marketing/linkshares-sales-reporting-web-service-and-affiliate-tracking-methods-101/ Discussion of Online Marketing, SEM, Social Media, Mobile and Video, Micro-Content, and Affiliate Marketing Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:59:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Carsten Cumbrowski http://www.revenews.com/affiliate-marketing/linkshares-sales-reporting-web-service-and-affiliate-tracking-methods-101/#comment-3272 Carsten Cumbrowski Sun, 09 Dec 2007 18:43:05 +0000 http://revenews.contentrobot.com/?p=656#comment-3272 Hi Kevin, thanks for your comment and for sharing some of your numbers. Based on <a href="http://www.vinnylingham.com/specialreports/cookiedetections/calc.html" rel="nofollow">the calculator</a> that was created by Ben Edelman as a result of his study about cookie removals, does your 5% difference between your internal tracking and the networks pixel tracking indicate that 80-85% of conversions occur on the day of the referral. I know that ShareAsale provides a report that shows the percentage of conversions during the cookie duration. Other networks do not, but you might do this tracking as part of your internal tracking. Can you confirm this 80-85% estimate for conversions that happen within the first 24 hours after the referral based on your own experiences? I appreciate it. Its too bad that not many advertisers do this kind of double tracking and share some of the general figures. Hi Kevin,
thanks for your comment and for sharing some of your numbers.
Based on the calculator that was created by Ben Edelman as a result of his study about cookie removals, does your 5% difference between your internal tracking and the networks pixel tracking indicate that 80-85% of conversions occur on the day of the referral. I know that ShareAsale provides a report that shows the percentage of conversions during the cookie duration. Other networks do not, but you might do this tracking as part of your internal tracking.

Can you confirm this 80-85% estimate for conversions that happen within the first 24 hours after the referral based on your own experiences? I appreciate it.

Its too bad that not many advertisers do this kind of double tracking and share some of the general figures.

]]> By: Kevin Brown http://www.revenews.com/affiliate-marketing/linkshares-sales-reporting-web-service-and-affiliate-tracking-methods-101/#comment-3271 Kevin Brown Thu, 06 Dec 2007 06:15:08 +0000 http://revenews.contentrobot.com/?p=656#comment-3271 Nice article. I use both methods for our product sales with batch tracking used as the official numbers . Pixel tracking has shown to be consistenly 5% less than our internal tracking. For the most part,I think the lack of accuracy is just part of doing business online much like click fraud with PPC. The good news is the inaccuracies are fairly consistent so it can be mitigated. Nice article. I use both methods for our product sales with batch tracking used as the official numbers . Pixel tracking has shown to be consistenly 5% less than our internal tracking. For the most part,I think the lack of accuracy is just part of doing business online much like click fraud with PPC. The good news is the inaccuracies are fairly consistent so it can be mitigated.

]]> By: Carsten Cumbrowski http://www.revenews.com/affiliate-marketing/linkshares-sales-reporting-web-service-and-affiliate-tracking-methods-101/#comment-3270 Carsten Cumbrowski Mon, 03 Dec 2007 09:03:41 +0000 http://revenews.contentrobot.com/?p=656#comment-3270 Hi Michael, This is actually included in Con 1 for batch tracking, but I did not spell it out the way you did. Thanks for clarifying that for people who are not aware of that. I hear you regarding the redundant tracking. I did that for BevMo.com actually when I managed their program. They decided for CJ pixel tracking and that was the basis for the affiliate commission. We did however enabled in CJ that the AID and PID is transmitted to the destination page at BevMo.com and set our own tracking cookie and recorded that with sales and new customer sign ups. To answer your question you probably have. No, the numbers did not match up. But that came not to a surprise. It was almost always the case that CJ was not recording the sale instead of the other way around if there was a difference. This was most likely caused by a deleted CJ cookie. The difference over all was not bad enough to raise major concerns back then. I would have loved to dig into much greater detail, but time did not permit me to do that. What I got out of the general numbers was that the cookie blocking issue was not as big of a deal as some people wanted to make others believe. I would recommend to anybody to do your own tracking next to pixel tracking. We discovered fraud that way. I will not post here how the fraud was done, because I learned that this works on other networks as well that use pixel tracking. I tested it myself at ShareASale where I have affiliate accounts and an old advertiser account. I sent Brian an email back then (2003 or 2004 I think), but he never responded to my detailed email that contained what I did, what the results were and some suggestions to detect at least some of the fraud automatcally. I have not tested in lately, but I would not be surprised if it would still work the same way. I also ran out of a CJ advertiser account to conduct a test :). I could test SAS though. Maybe I will. mmh. Hi Michael,
This is actually included in Con 1 for batch tracking, but I did not spell it out the way you did. Thanks for clarifying that for people who are not aware of that.

I hear you regarding the redundant tracking. I did that for BevMo.com actually when I managed their program. They decided for CJ pixel tracking and that was the basis for the affiliate commission. We did however enabled in CJ that the AID and PID is transmitted to the destination page at BevMo.com and set our own tracking cookie and recorded that with sales and new customer sign ups.

To answer your question you probably have. No, the numbers did not match up. But that came not to a surprise. It was almost always the case that CJ was not recording the sale instead of the other way around if there was a difference. This was most likely caused by a deleted CJ cookie. The difference over all was not bad enough to raise major concerns back then. I would have loved to dig into much greater detail, but time did not permit me to do that.

What I got out of the general numbers was that the cookie blocking issue was not as big of a deal as some people wanted to make others believe.

I would recommend to anybody to do your own tracking next to pixel tracking. We discovered fraud that way. I will not post here how the fraud was done, because I learned that this works on other networks as well that use pixel tracking. I tested it myself at ShareASale where I have affiliate accounts and an old advertiser account. I sent Brian an email back then (2003 or 2004 I think), but he never responded to my detailed email that contained what I did, what the results were and some suggestions to detect at least some of the fraud automatcally.
I have not tested in lately, but I would not be surprised if it would still work the same way. I also ran out of a CJ advertiser account to conduct a test :) . I could test SAS though. Maybe I will. mmh.

]]> By: Michael Coley http://www.revenews.com/affiliate-marketing/linkshares-sales-reporting-web-service-and-affiliate-tracking-methods-101/#comment-3269 Michael Coley Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:49:45 +0000 http://revenews.contentrobot.com/?p=656#comment-3269 Another "con" with batch tracking is that <b>every</b> landing page on the merchant's site has to be set up to track affiliate traffic (most often by setting a cookie that identifies the affiliate, or logging the affiliate data into the session). I've run across numerous situations where batch-tracking merchants added a new links/page which didn't properly track. To me, this is one of the biggest problems with batch tracking. I've long been an advocate of redundant tracking (using both a network tracking pixel and merchant-side tracking). Although I've proposed this to virtually every network I work with, I don't know of any who have implemented it (or even have it planned for the near future). I did have one merchant who had both forms of tracking in place for a few months (while transitioning from one to another) and I found that <b>both</b> tracking methods caught about the same percent of sales that the other had missed. I don't remember the exact details, but it seems like either method by itself missed almost 5% of sales. It's far from being a scientific study, but I think it's fairly representative. Another “con” with batch tracking is that every landing page on the merchant’s site has to be set up to track affiliate traffic (most often by setting a cookie that identifies the affiliate, or logging the affiliate data into the session). I’ve run across numerous situations where batch-tracking merchants added a new links/page which didn’t properly track. To me, this is one of the biggest problems with batch tracking.

I’ve long been an advocate of redundant tracking (using both a network tracking pixel and merchant-side tracking). Although I’ve proposed this to virtually every network I work with, I don’t know of any who have implemented it (or even have it planned for the near future). I did have one merchant who had both forms of tracking in place for a few months (while transitioning from one to another) and I found that both tracking methods caught about the same percent of sales that the other had missed. I don’t remember the exact details, but it seems like either method by itself missed almost 5% of sales. It’s far from being a scientific study, but I think it’s fairly representative.

]]> By: Carsten Cumbrowski http://www.revenews.com/affiliate-marketing/linkshares-sales-reporting-web-service-and-affiliate-tracking-methods-101/#comment-3268 Carsten Cumbrowski Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:49:15 +0000 http://revenews.contentrobot.com/?p=656#comment-3268 Thanks for the honest feedback Shawn. I left a bunch of stuff out actually (no kidding). You could consider this post the "short version" :). I know, I know. I hope that my colorful illustrations will help with the understanding of those things. They are technical in nature, which is always tough to explain to a non-technical person. Thanks for the honest feedback Shawn. I left a bunch of stuff out actually (no kidding). You could consider this post the “short version” :) . I know, I know. I hope that my colorful illustrations will help with the understanding of those things. They are technical in nature, which is always tough to explain to a non-technical person.

]]> By: Shawn Collins http://www.revenews.com/affiliate-marketing/linkshares-sales-reporting-web-service-and-affiliate-tracking-methods-101/#comment-3267 Shawn Collins Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:04:03 +0000 http://revenews.contentrobot.com/?p=656#comment-3267 Nice explanation - perhaps a bit elaborate for a newbie trying to wrap their head around it. Nice explanation – perhaps a bit elaborate for a newbie trying to wrap their head around it.

]]> By: Jonathan (Trust) http://www.revenews.com/affiliate-marketing/linkshares-sales-reporting-web-service-and-affiliate-tracking-methods-101/#comment-3266 Jonathan (Trust) Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:01:44 +0000 http://revenews.contentrobot.com/?p=656#comment-3266 I will just say Linkshare is in the dark ages when it comes to reporting. SAS and Performics, pretty instant. CJ usually within 2 hours unless it's a batch merchant. Linkshare, whenever the merchant sends in the data. Some send it in more frequently that others. But affiliates in general like as real time as possible reporting. I will just say Linkshare is in the dark ages when it comes to reporting. SAS and Performics, pretty instant. CJ usually within 2 hours unless it’s a batch merchant. Linkshare, whenever the merchant sends in the data. Some send it in more frequently that others. But affiliates in general like as real time as possible reporting.

]]> By: Shawn Collins http://www.revenews.com/affiliate-marketing/linkshares-sales-reporting-web-service-and-affiliate-tracking-methods-101/#comment-3264 Shawn Collins Fri, 30 Nov 2007 05:20:46 +0000 http://revenews.contentrobot.com/?p=656#comment-3264 > After reading the post did it occur to me that many (including Shawn how it seems) do not understand how the affiliate tracking works and what the difference is between the two main methods that are used by affiliate networks. Carsten - the information from my post was all taken from the release from LinkShare, so I'm not sure how you surmise that I don't understand the nuances of tracking. And when I ended with "Does this mark the death of the pixel?", it was meant to be rhetorical to echo the desire of many affiliate marketers to evolve to a more consistent tracking method. > After reading the post did it occur to me that many (including Shawn how it seems) do not understand how the affiliate tracking works and what the difference is between the two main methods that are used by affiliate networks.

Carsten – the information from my post was all taken from the release from LinkShare, so I’m not sure how you surmise that I don’t understand the nuances of tracking.

And when I ended with “Does this mark the death of the pixel?”, it was meant to be rhetorical to echo the desire of many affiliate marketers to evolve to a more consistent tracking method.

]]> By: Carsten Cumbrowski http://www.revenews.com/affiliate-marketing/linkshares-sales-reporting-web-service-and-affiliate-tracking-methods-101/#comment-3265 Carsten Cumbrowski Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:40:03 +0000 http://revenews.contentrobot.com/?p=656#comment-3265 Hi Shawn, thanks for the clarification. I suspected this actually, but wasn't entirely sure. So I thought that I will mention it and see if and what you will respond. I just wanted to keep you on your toes :) Btw. What do you think about my general explanation of the tracking methods? Cheers! Carsten Hi Shawn, thanks for the clarification.

I suspected this actually, but wasn't entirely sure. So I thought that I will mention it and see if and what you will respond. I just wanted to keep you on your toes :)

Btw. What do you think about my general explanation of the tracking methods?

Cheers!
Carsten

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